Konnichiwa mina-san! Good day everyone!
Jeremi desu yo! It's jeremy!
Biiig lesson!
Basic introduction,numbers and pronounciation!
This is a histroic moment for 2011japan.blogspot.com, for today, the 1st ever Japanese lesson shall be posted! I'll make sure to create some audio for it on my youtube channel, JeremiDesuYo, !
"So, what exactly shall mark this great occasion, which words and useful phrases will we learn?"
Is the question I can mostly certainly hear in your focused minds. Well! We'll be learning useful, yet simple, introduction phrases and related words! Yea!
But before I place this big weight of responsibility on you guys,
we shall go over the prounciation laws of Japanese!
a = as in father | A-sa-ku-sa -- Tokyo place |
i = as in eat | Ni-hon-ba-shi -- Tokyo place |
u = as in food or zoo | U-e-no – Tokyo place |
e = as in end | E-do – name of Tokyo before 1868 |
o = as in Ohio | O-cha-no-mi-zu – Tokyo place |
The consonant sounds are:
k = as in cat | A-ka-sa-ka – Tokyo place |
g = as in gourd | Gin-za – Tokyo place |
s = as in Sue | E-bi-su – Tokyo place |
sh = as in seashore | Shi-ta-ma-chi – Tokyo area |
z = as in zoo | Zen |
j = as in Jack | San-gen-ja-ya – Tokyo place |
t = as in tick | To-ra-no-mon – Tokyo place |
ts = this is one of the tricky ones; thinktsetse fly. | Tsu-ki-ji – Tokyo place |
ch = as in chicken | Chi-yo-da – Tokyo place |
n = as in new | Ni-hon – “Japan” |
h = as in have | Ha-ra-ju-ku – Tokyo place |
f = another slightly tricky one; think of “who” with an f sound | Fu-ji-san – Mt. Fuji |
b = as in Boeing | O-da-i-ba – Tokyo place |
p = as in party, pea, Poe | I-p’pon-ba-shi – Tokyo place |
m = as in mama | Ma-ru-no-u-chi – Tokyo place |
ya = as in yahoo, yeoman, | Ya-su-ku-ni – Tokyo shrine |
r = the trickiest one – more like a “d” than an “r” (as in a British butler saying “very good, madam”) ** | Ro-p’pon-gi – Tokyo place |
w = as in wander | Su-mi-da-ga-wa – Sumida River |
(Thank you http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~bestor/easy_pronunciation.htm for this useful grid!)
As you can probably tell, the rules of prounciation are similiar to those of Maori, or Samoan.
Except in Japanese, the G is not pronounced as a "gnah", err, yeah, you get what I mean.
Yes! That's correct! Japanese is indeed easy to pronounce! Especially in comparison to Chinese, boy, that's a mouthful.
So, anyway!
Back to the Japanese lesson of introduction!
Okay, let's start off simply here.
To say, my name is...
you'd say "Watashi no nomae (name)...."
Try it! Watashi no nomae Jeremi!
Let's break this down...
Watashi- The word for I,
No- the possesive particle (similiar to ')
Nomae- The word for name.
That's easy, wasn't it?
Please beware, that the grammar does get insanely different later on.
Okay, to say where you come from the phrase "...... kara kimashita" is essential!
(kara meaning from)
For example, "Nyujirando kara kimashita", would mean "I come from New Zealand!".
In order to state your age you would say, the number followed by "...sai desu"
E.g. Jyuu roku sai desu (I'm 16)
(sai meaning age, desu means it's)
Wait, wait, numbers?!
Don't worry, Japanese numbers are simple!
Here we go, count along!:
1- Ichi 20- Ni jyuu (2-10)
2- Ni 30- San Jyuu (3-10)
3- San 40- Shi Jyuu (4-10)
4- Shi 50-100 is the same logical structure, easy isn't it?
5- Go 23- Ni jyuu san (2-10-3)
6- Roku 34- San jyuu shi (3-10-4)
7- Hichi 45- shi jyuu go (4-10-5)
8- Hachi All other numbers with multiple digits follow this structure, too!
9- Kyuu 100- Hyaku (100)
10- Jyuu 200- Ni Hyaku (200)
300- San Hyaku (300)
324- San Hyaku ni jyuu shi
1,000- One thousand
Easy, isn't it?!
Exactly!
Okay, back to introductions,
to say "My hobbies are..."
You'd say "Watashi no shumi wa..."
(Watashi, I, No, possesive, Shumi, hobby, wa, is)
Followed by the hobbies!
Some examples of verbs/hobbies are-
Odotte- dancing, uta-singing, computaa- computering,
hashire- running, etc (We'll cover more verbs in another lesson)!
So, "watashi no shuma wa odotte to hashire"
Would be, "my hobbies are dancing and running"
(Oh, "to" means and, btw)
Now, lets move on to our language abillities in an introduction!
How do you say "I speak some Japanese and fluent english"?
Here we go !:
"Watashi no chotto nihongo wo hanshimasu"- I speak some Japanese
(Watashi, I, No, possesive, chotto, some, nihongo, Japanese, hanashimasu, speak, wo particle belonging to speak)
So, therefore "Watashi no eigo wo hanashimasu" is I speak english (Fluently)!
(Eigo meaning english, chotto was taken out because we know more than some english, and nihongo was taken out because we're not fluent in Japanese ;P)
Activity!
So, can you introduce your self now?
My introduction would be:
Konnichiwa, mina-san! Watashi no nomae Jeremi desu! Watashi wa jyuu roku sai desu!
Nyuujirando kara kimashita! Watashi no chotto nihongo wo hanashimasu, to, watashi no eigo wo hanashimasu! Watashi no shumi wa computaa to nihongo!
Thank you for viewing this lesson!
If you've read through this big block of text,
you're learning Japanese really well!
Awesome!
Please tune in for next time, (it'll be not as long next time, I promise! (,yakusoku!))
Ja Mata!